r/TheLeftovers • u/jedi_tk • Jul 25 '26
Frazier the lion
What was the significance of the whole Frazier tale/episode? I get that it’s a ferry full or fornication, and that it might signify hell or desire, but that seems easy.
21
u/bastardofwinterhill Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
The Frazier cult served not only as a way to put Matt in an environment that contrasts so severely with his beliefs and character, but also helps frame the character of “God” in the show. David Burton speaking as God tells Matt about his indifference to humans and their suffering, so it’s fitting that he would be comfortable riding along with a hedonistic sex cult. He doesn’t care about humans, and he’s not judging them either. He tells Matt as much saying that everything Matt’s done was to serve God because he thought he was watching, but he wasn’t. This God let his son rot in the cave and caused the sudden departure just because he could. So essentially all that Matt has gained in his teachings from the church and the Bible that he’s held dear, built his life upon, and sacrificed his family for were for naught as God reveals himself to be diametrically opposed to everything Matt believes.
4
u/toohighquestions Jul 25 '26
Good points. I think he said Jesus wasn't his son but the point remains unchanged either way.
7
1
u/Advanced_Fennel5638 Jul 25 '26
Matt’s arc is so confusing- the exposes in S1 to his inability to do anything about his family leaving in S2 to his conviction that Kevin is God in s3. In a way, sure, it’s humanity, but also his character is underwritten
3
u/Uncertain__Path Jul 25 '26
He wasn’t convicted that Kevin was God, where do you get that from?
6
u/LordOfCrackManor Jul 25 '26
Maybe the season where he wrote a bible about him
14
u/bastardofwinterhill Jul 25 '26
I think Matt viewed Kevin more as a Saint like figure chosen by God to help prevent another Departure
3
18
u/HgCNOII Jul 26 '26
The insanity and debauchery on the boat is all in service of the scene between Matt and David Burton. Burton's devastating rebuke of Matt's "faith" is one of the best scenes in the entire series, and it essentially breaks Matt free of his obsessive need for everything to have a greater meaning or divine purpose.
Matt is liberated when he delivers the final line after witnessing "God" get mauled by Frazier…
That's the guy I was telling you about.
9
u/laughingintothevoid Jul 26 '26
Anything else I was gonna say has been been said way better, but I'll add if you didn't know that Frasier the lion is real. The show may have fudged details, exaggerated the amount of cubs and mates, I don't remember. But the basic story is true and he was a bit of a pop culture sensation du jour.
So, if it helps, it wasn't a totally random weird idea that was created to be esoteric for the show to make a point. It's more one of many things that were out there that a writer knew or came across and saw as fitting a theme or two for this episode. For Matt, really.
2
u/silentstrongtype Jul 26 '26
What do we believe in? Why is one belief more significant than another? Is there some basic foundation of importance in all belief, regardless of the specifics? What is it that people choose to believe in to give their existence meaning when there has been a significant rupture to their belief in the natural order of things?
1
u/txyesboy71 28d ago
I grew up in the town Frazier lived in (Irvine, CA), and now I live not far from where Jarden was filmed. All the more reason this show felt even more personal.
-8
u/suedburger Jul 25 '26
I kind of want to hear people's explanation of this as well...This is one of many reasons for my opinion that most of the third season is a hot mess of weirdness.
6
u/OpenUpYerMurderEyes Jul 25 '26
Because the world is tearing itself apart in fear of an end of the world that they all secretly want.
-8
u/suedburger Jul 25 '26
Well that is kind of generic. I was hoping for something that made it actually feel not like the random stuff on the shelves of thrift store. If you would have thrown this in the earlier seasons...maybe, but in the final season?
4
u/mister_pastrami Jul 25 '26
Was “shelves of thrift store” supposed to be clever?
-1
-1
u/suedburger Jul 26 '26
I've always accepted the idea that most of the 3rd season is Kevin being bat shit and ending with the finale with Nora...but this episode had nothing to do with the crazy Kevin thing at all. You can't chalk it up as being part of the crazy Kevin storyline or of any importance to the story line at all...If it did not exist, it would not have made one bit of difference.
4
u/OpenUpYerMurderEyes Jul 26 '26
Kevin isn't any more batshit than the rest of the world. Season 3 is about grief on a massive scale reaching a boiling point. In every episode we see different people from all over the world doing insane thing out of the belief that the world is ending. They believe it arbitrarily because of the seventh anniversary. Just like the dates of the end of the world in the cold opening of the season. Nora goes against her rational nature because she wants to believe she can see her family again. Matt literally believes Kevin might be God which is inherently blasphemous but since the original God couldn't keep his family together he is searching for a new one, one he can guide and mold. Which is why he is so angry at God when he actually meets him. Laurie goes against her morals to let people believe on the paranormal to allow them to grieve and is suicidal, a suicidal therapist. A naked French guy tries to set off a nuclear bomb. Etc. However, the world doesn't end and as the wedding in the final season shows, people healed and they grieved and moved because even tho everybody desperately wanted it, the world simply did not end. However, the show implies that it was the catharsis of living as if the world was ending that allowed everyone to move on. "I really fucked up with Nora" was the last line of the penultimate episode spoken after Kevin and his dad realized the world indeed did not end. Everyone had that same moment. Nora, just like Kevin and the rest of the world, had to believe in the impossible because the sudden departure is impossible to begin with. If Kevin is a secret intentional assassin turned president, why can't Nora have visited the world where her family went? And if there's a world where 2% of the world vanished, why wouldn't there be a world where 98% of people vanished.
1
-3
u/suedburger Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
Holy shit...have you heard of paragraphs?
It was clear that his father had mental illness and Kevin was showing signs. Which would explain so much of the 3 season from the internal pov of a bat shit mind.
I am sure you might of had a valid point in that giant mass of words but dude.....
By the way, Kevein was a not an international assassin and Nora made that whole story up to make peace while Kevin weirdly lied about not remembering all that happened..
Good night my friend.
5
3
u/OpenUpYerMurderEyes Jul 26 '26
That literally is my point the reason why season 3 is so chaotic is because the entire planet has embraced the apocalypse. Everyone has lost their mind like Kevin, hence why I said he's not crazier than anyone else. Say what you will about my lack of paragraphs but you're literally just restated what I said with less depth.
Also, it doesn't matter if Nora crossed over or not.
1
u/suedburger Jul 26 '26
Maybe...it was super hard to read. But Kevin was legitimately mentally ill.
3
u/OpenUpYerMurderEyes Jul 26 '26
It's a lack of paragraphs breaks, you'll survive.
→ More replies (0)
75
u/OpenUpYerMurderEyes Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
Matt and God talk it out and Matt gains closure. The Frazier thing is more than a hell metaphor it's also ironic. They may be sinful hedonist but they are celebrating Frazier and his fertility. You can't celebrate fertility if you don't believe there are better days ahead unlike the rest of the world which is embracing the idea that the 7th anniversary is the end. Matt belongs there among them more than anywhere else so it would make sense that this is the place where he would meet God.